Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
is this on season three of proof murder at the bike shop is available now wherever you get your podcasts i'm scared to be sitting here in this damn chair talking about this shit this is a guy confessing a murder to her and she has no idea what day it happened everything i tell you is the truth i hope i don't bring a ton of shit down on me listen to season three of proof now wherever you get your podcasts there was evidence in the house and they would not listen to me it's not me i didn't do it
Welcome to 2020 The After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts, and as always, it is really a pleasure to have you here with us as we take a deep look at a 2020 episode that we have covered. As you all know, we always take a deeper dive into some of those details that you learned about on a Friday night.
Well, our most recent episode called Yogurt Shop Murders is a notably chilling story that just made headlines for really more than 30 years.
Chapter 2: What are the details of the Yogurt Shop Murders case?
It goes back to December 6th, 1991, when 14 girls were brutally murdered. I mean, just in a way that it's just almost hard to describe at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. The victims were sisters, Sarah and Jennifer Harbison, who were 17 and 15 at the time, Eliza Thomas, a friend of theirs who was 17, and Amy Ayers, who was only 13 years old when she was murdered.
These girls were found bound, sexually assaulted, and shot. It was just something that was beyond imagination.
Chapter 3: How did the community react to the Yogurt Shop Murders?
And then afterwards, the shop was set on fire, obviously in an attempt to cover the the grisly crime to cover up all the evidence. And the case just left the community heartbroken and, as you might imagine, a police force just struggling to try to solve this case.
Along the years, as they began to investigate, and I say years because this case did take years to solve, there were false confessions, there were dead ends.
Chapter 4: What challenges did investigators face in solving the case?
And then thanks to a team that just would not give up, ultimately a killer was identified, but it was 34 years later. Well, if you saw our 2020 episode, you know, our story is centered around exclusively, by the way, an interview with Mindy Montford, who is a former assistant Texas attorney general who really helped crack this case. Mindy is here with us now to share some details about this case.
Mindy, it is such a pleasure to have you.
Thank you, Deborah.
Chapter 5: How did Mindy Montford become involved in the case?
I'm very happy to be here, and thank you for the coverage you've given this case.
Oh, my goodness. Of course. I mean, it's one of those that people have been talking about for a long time. I wish you and I could be together in person, but I know you're working on lots of things out there in Texas.
Chapter 6: What role did DNA evidence play in solving the case?
But let's just start off with the case to begin with, because you worked tirelessly on this, along with other investigators, of course. But when you came into the case, people had essentially kind of given up on it being solved, really. But you... wanted to just jump right into this because it kind of resonated with you. Why was it that this case touched something in you just off the start?
Chapter 7: What insights did Mindy Montford gain from the victims' families?
Well, I actually have been in Austin, Texas since 1976 and grew up in that neighborhood. I've been to the North Cross Mall. I've been to the yogurt shop. That is a neighborhood that it was a community. And when this happened, I remember I was in college and seeing the news coverage of my neighborhood.
Chapter 8: What new leads emerged in the investigation after many years?
you know, this horrific crime. I mean, back then too, if you recall, we would walk everywhere as a kid. You didn't even have a phone. Your parents trusted you on a bike for hours. So that was the environment we grew up in. And then to just fast forward, be in college, seeing this on TV unfolding in my community, it was horrible.
Yeah.
Then over the years, just following the case and going through law school, then I became a prosecutor. But watching what these families went through through the justice system repeatedly and just being victimized over and over again by the system, I just it really broke my heart for them. And I always had an interest in the case.
Yeah. And when you think about it, these girls were just a little bit younger than you were because you're right there in college thinking about, you know, somebody who could be your age. You touched on something when you talked about those innocent times of kids, you know, just walking around and riding their bikes. And in this case, just hanging out at a yogurt shop. Right.
Two of the girls worked there in our episode. Somebody described this as the day that Austin lost its innocence. And you could see that that was what happened. I mean, this tragedy really impacted the community in a huge way.
I don't think we've ever been the same since. It just was when you talk to anybody in Austin, Texas, and if you say, you know, like years ago, I would say, oh, I'm a prosecutor. Oh, have you ever heard of the yogurt shop murders? I mean, it was just everybody knew about this case. And we were a small community back then, not so much today. But it really did change. It changed us.
It just did not make sense. It just changed our community. It really did.
I can imagine. And I've covered so many of these stories, and we often do, when they're in a fairly small town. And Austin, as you said, is sort of bustling now. But people really did feel very safe and sort of protected. And so when this kind of thing happens, it shakes you. Let's talk about those four girls, Sarah, Jennifer, Eliza, and Amy. As I said, doing something so innocent.
A couple of the girls worked at the yoga shop. They're all just there kind of hanging out. And their lives were viciously cut short. And I think in some ways that is what haunted this community more than anything else. I mean, any horrible crime is a horrible crime. But in this case, young, I mean, basically babies.
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